By Dr Salim Nazzal
It is impossible to talk about the end of history without thinking about the beginning of a new history. Human history does not usually follow a straight line, but is subject to great fluctuations and changes. These changes are often like a new climate that drives out the old climates that become unacceptable.
In the past, slavery was a natural and acceptable system, and seeing European ships transporting thousands of Africans to the New World was a normal event that did not shake the feelings of those who went to church every Sunday in Europe.
Colonization was also an acceptable system in a certain historical period. It was normal to see representatives of European countries sitting and drinking coffee in front of maps as they divided the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America, with all their people and wealth, among themselves.
Britain’s giving Palestine to the Jews happened in the last historical stages when this matter was acceptable in the world. And the world was the West, which succeeded in determining the fate of humanity for more than two centuries, so much so that we still use the expression “world public opinion” and we mean the West, as if anything other than the West had no opinion.
The saying “history is written by the strong” is a common saying that suggests that the dominant forces in society are the ones who shape the historical narrative. This is often true, as the strong have the power to control the production and dissemination of historical knowledge. However, the saying is not absolute. There are many examples of weak or marginalized groups who have been able to write their own history, often through the use of oral traditions, literature, and other forms of cultural expression.
We now see how the Zionist narrative, which has dominated for decades, has begun to crumble, and the Palestinian narrative has begun to emerge, especially in front of the young generation.
Tإhere are a number of factors that have contributed to the decline of the Zionist narrative. One factor is the increasing availability of information and perspectives from the Palestinian side. The internet and social media have made it easier for people to learn about the Palestinian experience, and this has led to a more nuanced understanding of the conflict.
The Palestinian attack on October 7 was a small attack, but it came as an announcement that old history had ended and that a new history was about to begin.
Though I do not agree with the view that Israel is finished, but I firmly believe that a major blow has been dealt to the Zionist idea, which is based on the cancellation of the Palestinian people and bringing the Jews of the world to Palestine.
We are witnessing a new history in Palestine, the Middle East, and indeed the whole world.
Questions have begun to be raised that go beyond Gaza and Palestine, especially after the exposure of the falsehood of Western positions towards the genocide of Gaza, and these questions have become to raise major issues about the formation of the United Nations, the dominance of the dollar, and the exploitation of the resources of the Third World by the Western world, and other issues that concern all of humanity.
Mahatma Gandhi was right when he said that the tyrants and murderers seem invincible but in the end, they always fall.
Dr Salim Nazzal is a Palestinian Norwegian researcher, lecturer playwright and poet, wrote more than 17 books such as Perspectives on thought, culture and political sociology, in thought, culture and ideology, the road to Baghdad. Palestine in heart.
4 January 2024
Source: countercurrents.org